New user help!!!

[phatone]

HI,
i tryed setting up an earlier version of this, and got lost along the way somewhere. but realy want to get it working.

my current set up is as follows.

box1)i have an xp machine which has all my music, video and photos etc on.

box2)i have a xpmce machine in the livingroom, with no files stored on it, and it streams all contend from the xp machine. 

i dont realy want to change box 1 if i can help it. i have things running on there i can do under linux at present.

i wouldnt keep box 2 on all the time. xpmce boots up and is ready to go in about 40 secs.
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would linuxmce install on box 2, and work in the same way as xpmce does for me now, streaming all files from box 1? or would i have issues streaming from xp?
and will it boot up in a reasonable time?
these are my main points, as if i can do this anything else is a bonus.

if i want to watch my cable box through box 2 ( i dont need to record at the mo) is it just a case of plugging it into a video capture device?

also, i have the xpmce control and ir blaster. i have seen other ir blasters talked about on here, but will the xp one work ok? all i would want to controle with it is probably my creative surround box, and i was thinking about getting an AV switcher box, so i can swith between cable box/ps2/wii/vcr.

im not too fussy at this stage if i have to use the actual remotes for cable and vcr. but being able to switch them with linux mce would be a bonus.

sorry if im being a bit long winded. realy want to get this going - i just hope i can set it up and run as simply as xpmce.

thanks for any help you can offer.
Sion.

[geoffrey]

Yes, you could leave Box 1 alone and still access the media on it.

although it is impossible to guess how long it would take to boot up LMCE on your machine (you gave us no specs and even then.....)I can say from my experience that a cold boot in only 40 secs is probably a bit optimistic. 

there are several threads on using windows mce remotes, I would search for that specifically if you had questions.  I don't have one but I think they are being used by others with no problems.

my question though is, if you don't want to take advantage of all the elements of LMCE that make it more capable than WindowsMCE and the WinMCE is working for you, why try to jam LMCE into a role it wasn't really designed to play?

[phatone]

thanks.
mainly becauce linuxmce looks, visualy, about 100 better.
and all the extra things its capable of will mean, that once i get my head round it, and can get it running like i have now, these extra things will be a bonus.
any way,
cheers for  your help.
think i shal get a new hard drive and swap em over and give it a bash on the weekend!
sion.